This folio once illustrated a magnificent manuscript of Nizami’s Haft Paikar (Seven Portraits). The story of the Seven Portraits comprises a series of moralizing tales as told to the Persian hero Bahram Gur by seven princesses. This lively and lyrical scene illustrates a story in which a youth spies upon maidens swimming in a garden pool by moonlight. The voyeur is barely visible here, peering out of the shuttered window, unbeknownst to the playful bathers below.

The inscriptions on the building were retranslated with the help of Abdullah Ghouchani (08/15/2008). They read as follows: at the top of building, "Allah and nothing but He, and we never worship anyone but He"; above the right window, "Continuous glory, the Everlasting"; above left window, "The glory the Sultan, the power"; above the door, "O Ye (God) who opens doors." It should be noted that the inscription above the left window is grammatically incorrect in Arabic (the English, too is awkward, because a literal translation has been provided). This raises questions about whether the inscriptions are original to the manuscript. Additionally, the last word of the script above the right window is unclear; Dr. Ghouchani guessed that it might be "Al-Baqa" in Arabic, which would translate as "the Everlasting." (Mariam Rahmani, Volunteer, Undergraduate at Princeton University, 08/15/2008)

On the building in thuluth script:
الله و لا سواه و لا نعبد إلا ایاه
God and no other one else and we do not pray to anyone else but him.
Above the door in kufic script:
يا مفتح الابواب
O you who are open the gates (who answer our problems)

Grube, Ernst J. "The Early School of Herat and its Impact on Islamic Painting of the Later 15th, the 16th and 17th Centuries." In The Classical Style in Islamic Painting. Venice: Edizioni Oriens, 1968. ill. pl. 19 (b/w), fol. 47a.